How to urge the top management about resolving washroom crisis in office

Question

This may sound funny, but in our country, this is a very common phenomenon, i.e. temporary shortage of water supply and the water supply line remaining closed for several hours. However, in a software firm, this scenario is not common, and in no ways desirable.

For almost over a year, we've been facing serious problems while going to the washroom. There are in total 4 washrooms including 1 female washroom, most of the time 2 of them don't have water supply. Only one male washroom and that female washroom have constant water supply and due to this reason, the male washroom always remains occupied in every hours of the day.

Whenever any male employee needs to go to the washroom, he has to wait for a long period of time to get a chance. This seriously reduces productive work hours hence affecting the productivity of our employees. Besides, most of our employees, me inclusive, are Muslims. We are to maintain common hygiene pretty strictly and also perform compulsory ablution¹ before every prayer. Since 3 out of 5 of our daily prayer times fall within our office hours (Zuhr, Asr and Maghrib), we need to go to the washroom at least 3 times a day to perform our ablution. The situation gets terrible when we see a huge queue in front of the washrooms before each prayer. Not only do our prayers get delayed, but also our work, our delivery and our meetings. A separate station for ablution (which you can find in almost all mosques) was set up for a brief period of time. Management themselves broke it.

Since we have less number of female employees, and female washroom never loses water supply, there isn't any crowd in front of the female washroom.

Some of our senior employees have already complained to the top management, but they did not pay heed to us. Now, I feel it is important to create pressure on the top management regarding this issue. Question is, how are we going to do that? Should we approach our HR and lodge a formal complain through them, or should we directly approach the top management and urge them to take necessary steps? Now this is crazy!!! Management accuses the employees of lack of productivity at the slightest of loss or lag, but they don't care to resolve the reason behind this lack of productivity. It is their responsibility to ensure a healthy work-environment for the employees, they can't just demand productivity from the employees without doing that.

Edit:

I forgot to mention one important point. There is actually 2 more washrooms in the 2nd building of our office and that is actually the management section. The washroom crisis I mentioned is in the 1st building which is the development section. However, it is very undesirable that employees are crowding the management section every now and then just to use their washroom, although, thinking of that, I have just got an idea this is exactly the thing we must do to wake them up!!!!!!

_{1: In Islam, a pre-prayer ablution typically needs the following activities to be done 3 times each - 1. wash both wrists 2. rinse the mouth 3. wash the nose 4. wash entire face including eyebrows, mustaches and beard 5. wash both hands from elbow upto wrists, 6. wash entire head and the earlobes, but only once, 7. wash both feet including the ankles, thrice.}

Answer 1

I think a strong business case is pretty easily made to management. "With A number of male Muslim employees, B man hours are taken by call to prayer. C% of B is spent in the washroom queue. The washroom queue in this facility is costing the company $D per year and reduces our ability to meet deadlines. Please consider solution 1, 2, and 3 as a way to increase site productivity."

Answer 2

I suggest you all present management with a petition requesting that management does whatever it takes to make all washrooms 100% operational. State clearly that the significant wait times for access to the washrooms has an immediate and negative impact on the productivity of the staff.

Personally, thinking about the company's long term welfare - that's just about the last and least thing on my mind when I need to use the washroom and I need to go now :)

Answer 3

I would suggest some sort of water tank be placed in your building. It should hold enough water to cover the down time. Think of it as some sort of buffer. Ideally it will automatically fill as it empties to a certain level.

Make this a team building exercise. You're all intelligent people, figure it out. You may need to go to management for some plumbing parts costs (especially the holding tank).

In a professional office building, everyone should be allowed to maintain hygiene to acceptable standards. It is not too much to ask for. In a shared/public setting, wait-time must be considered. Ideally, you shouldn't have to do this yourself, but your situation may require it unless you want to completely wait on the company to take action.

Answer 4

Does it have to be water? In canteens and hospitals they have hygiene bottles mounted on the wall so you can clean your hands as you go in. They have some cleaning solution in there. You could even put water in these - one of those big bottles they have in drinking fountains - and have buckets underneath.

Answer 5

There is a very easy case to be brought to upper management here.

"The situation with the bathroom queues right now means X manhours are beeing wasted every day due to waiting times at washrooms. This means the shortfall of washrooms is costing the company Y$ a day. I propose to to reduce this cost factor for the company and increase overall employee satisfaction."

Answer 6

Simple answer: Just do not tell them. If they keep on asking you about it then let them know gently that you are not going to come down to their level. It will take a little bit of extra effort. Don't go into this thinking that you can fix it without working a few weekends here and there. But eventually things will turn around. Without knowing your family situation, it's a little hard to give specifics but I imagine something along the lines of "No, and neither does my daughter. Could you kindly leave this issue alone." will suffice.